How to Find the Right Location

Say you’re out looking for a site for your new business. On your way home from work, you pass by an intersection that has a new retail centre under construction. The centre is guaranteed to have a high volume of traffic, as it’s down the road from a major mall, directly off the major highways, and easily accessible from the streets. Every car in the neighbourhood has to pass that spot at least once a day.

Let’s assume two major retail anchors, a regional grocer and drug store, have already signed leases. You meet with the landlord, and you find out that except for the one space available, the centre is totally leased by nationally branded retailers and restaurants. The one space left is 12 000 m2, and it’s located on the end cap, ensuring that whoever gets that space will have the best visibility in the entire centre. Best news yet, if you want it, the space is yours. Location, location, location goes through your mind. You’re guaranteed success… aren’t you?

If you’re a retailer or a restaurant, that site might be perfect, if you can afford it. But if you’re in, say, the carpet-cleaning business, the site is likely to be a disaster. Picking the right location depends on the type of business you’re in.

Franchisor Knows Best

Selecting a site for your business requires that you have knowledge of what locations are right and, possibly more important, what locations are wrong for your business. That’s called the site criteria, and it’s worth every cent to get it from prospective franchisors. Well established franchisors have experience, not only in different markets, but also in locations that vary in size, surroundings and customer draws. They should be able to provide you with accurate site criteria as well as the training and other assistance needed to find your site. A franchisor’s ability to provide this kind of information is a key indicator of its competency.

Remember, there are no stock definitions of a great site, because every business requires different types of locations. If your customers will be coming to your place of business, then visibility and ease of accessibility should be foremost in your mind. However, if you’re in a service business that goes to a customer’s home or place of business, then highways, a place to park your vehicles and warehouse space may be most important.

Consider what your location will do for you and what you can afford. If your business plan calls for space that costs R52 per square metre and the available space is R104 per square metre, ask yourself whether the more expensive space will bring in enough additional customers to justify the price. If it won’t, how long will it be before you can no longer afford the rent? If you need 2 000 m2 but get a bargain price for 4 000 m2, is bigger better? Maybe not, whereas at 2 000 m2 your business will look busy, it may look empty (and less appealing) at 4 000 m2.

Additional Criteria

Some of the basics of site selection include:

Population density

How many people or businesses are in your trading area? Are they the right background, age, family size and income for your type of business? Certain companies can provide you with demographic reports telling you who lives and works around your location.

Traffic generators

If you’re expecting customers to come to your location, it’s always beneficial to have other businesses nearby to help you draw them. Traffic generators such as malls, office complexes, schools or hospitals may bring you the right traffic. Anchors, like grocery stores, drug stores and department stores may also bring you the traffic you need. If your business is a women’s hair salon and your centre has several women’s clothing stores, that may be a perfect situation. But if your neighbour is a mattress store, will it bring you the appropriate traffic on a regular basis?

Traffic count and accessibility

How much traffic, both by car and by foot, passes by your location? Traffic counts aren’t enough though. If the traffic is going 120 km per hour and can’t get into your centre, then having a high traffic count won’t be very helpful. If foot traffic is high during the day but your business needs an evening clientele, then noon-time foot traffic won’t benefit you. You need to determine not only that traffic exists, but also that it’s accessible and available when you need it.

Competition

Some businesses, like quick-service restaurants, often do better in areas where other quick-service restaurants are established. However, if you own a dry cleaning business and there’s a dry cleaner on every corner near your possible location, saturation may be your undoing.

Security

Is the site safe for your customers and your staff? Is the centre run-down and frequented by individuals who will chase your customers away?

Employees

Will you be able to hire people in your area? If the pool of potential employees is limited, your pay scales may go through the roof. If you need entry-level, minimum-wage employees and every kid in the neighborhood is driving a BMW or Porsche, will you find enough staff to even stay open?

Visibility, signage and zoning

Will customers be able to see your business and your signs easily?

Finding a great retail or restaurant site is very difficult today, simply because many of the great sites have already been taken. But you can limit your risk by understanding what types of sites work for your business and making certain that the site you select meets your needs.

What To Know About Franchising Your Business

For many businesses, franchising is an excellent route to growth, opening up new opportunities and markets. Laurette Pienaar, National Franchise Manager at Nedbank, unpacks why it’s worth considering this route.

Vital Stats

What type of business is ideally suited to the franchise model?

Franchising has been proven successful across all industries, including the automotive, food, entertainment and retail industries. However, several key qualities ultimately determine a concept’s ability to successfully become a franchise.

Firstly, the business model must be scalable and able to be repeated in several locations. Secondly, there must be demand for the products sold and, thirdly, the franchise model must be proven as profitable.

Why is franchising a good growth option?

Franchising is often used as a cost-effective growth strategy for businesses. A key benefit of this strategy is that no capital layout is required for a new franchised store as opposed to corporate-owned stores.

Franchised stores are also proven to be more successful than corporate-owned stores. This is mainly due to the fact that the franchise owners have a vested interest in the store, whereas corporate stores are supervised by a manager. Franchising is therefore also a great way to build your brand.

What should business owners focus on?

Franchisors should set up good infrastructure to support their franchisees, including good upfront and ongoing training to both the franchisees and their staff, the correct legal advice and assistance, and a strong operational team to assist franchisees daily.

Many successful franchisors provide support by expanding through vertical integration, which provides franchisees with logistics, supply chain security and product consistency.

Several franchisors advocate a structure with both franchisee and corporate-owned stores. This enables a franchisor to keep in touch with the daily challenges franchisees experience and new products and solutions can be tested at a corporate store before being rolled out to the franchise network.

How can franchising consultants assist business owners?

Franchise consultants provide daily operational support to franchisees. They are responsible for daily store visits to assist with quality checks, process flows, supplier relationships and, often, financial assessments. They are a helpful soundboard on any improvements to be made in the business model and can convey suggestions to the franchisor.

What challenges should business owners be aware of?

Businesses looking to franchise need to ensure that their business is teachable to others. Overcomplicated products and systems may deter franchisees from investing in your brand.

Franchisors have to do ongoing introspection regarding their company culture. For example, does the culture promote innovation and inspire franchisees and consumers, which ultimately is a culture worth investing in?

New franchisors’ selection criteria for franchisees are often not sufficiently thorough and comprehensive. For a new franchisor, it is important to choose good quality franchisees and to have strict selection criteria to ensure that your brand remains reputable and stable during fast-expanding cycles.

What lessons can be learnt from SA’s successful franchises?

Businesses looking to expand through franchising should consider setting up several corporate-owned stores first. This assures potential investors that your business is based on a proven model with a track record and supportive infrastructure.

There is not always a one-size-fits-all model. Many franchisors have created custom models to accommodate and adjust to the need of a specific property or consumer market. A great example of this would be the food industry where many franchisors offer shopping centre concepts, drive thrus and kiosk or express concepts. Consider this when developing your model.

As a franchisor, digital marketing may be proving to be a challenge due to the unique structuring of the business.

“The very nature of franchises is ‘structured’, however, when it comes to marketing, that structure often lacks,” says Marcela De Vivo, Founder and CEO of Gryffin Media.

Franchisors and franchisees often struggle to reach common ground when looking to achieve different marketing goals. While the franchisor needs to control the brand in its entirety, the franchisee wants to market their business using particular strategies suited to their location.

Research has found that smartphones are the biggest influencers of 82% of users when they make their in-store purchase decisions while. It’s for this reason that the importance of digital marketing for franchises has increased.

Here’s how to harness its power of influence, amplify foot traffic and solidify brand loyalty:

1. Recruit digital natives and early adopters

As much as you’re the leader of your franchise network, there are franchisees in your chain you could learn from. The global increase in millennial franchise owners means it is highly likely that you’ll be able to identify early digital adopters within your franchise network.

“The best people to learn from are those who have been in your shoes before,” says Matt Forman of the Franchise Centre at Griffith University.

“Encourage and support their efforts and use them as case studies to demonstrate to the rest of your franchisees the value of digital marketing, and how to do it right.”

2. Invest in training your team

“Each digital competency level requires more education and resources in order to integrate digital marketing with your physical stores,” says Forman. For this reason, regularly investing in continuous training for your team so as to ensure they keep abreast of any new and emerging trends.

Proactivity and adapting to the constantly evolving digital landscape led KFC to open a LinkedIn accountfor its founder and mascot Colonel Sanders. KFC’s out of the box tactic is a fresh approach to what has long been considered a B2B platform, under-utilised as a B2C platform.

3. Apply custom targeting techniques

The discovery of new and small businesses is being fuelled by Google searches, social media and online reviews, making these platforms a goldmine of invaluable tools.

Leveraging certain custom targeting techniques like easily searchable keywords and exposure on other reputable and high-traffic websites, gives your franchise’s digital marketing efforts a boost. This results in an effective campaign, favourable reviews and meaningful and lasting interactions with consumers “whether it’s a reply to a Facebook comment or a retweet,” says Entrepreneur’s Emily Conklin.

How To Hire Skilled Workers For Your Franchise

According to the Franchise Association of South Africa (FASA) 2017 Franchisor Survey, one of the main challenges facing franchisees is finding the right staff.

“Staffing your franchise can be one of the most challenging parts of running a successful business. Without a great team of employees, you cannot run your business effectively,” says Saxon Marsden-Huggins, founder of WebRover.

These three tips could help you find the best employees for your franchise outlet:

1. Don’t hire in haste

While you may be rearing to go and keen to fill gaps to speed up profitability, research your candidates thoroughly.

As the job applications keep flowing into your inbox, keep in mind that not all of them qualify for the positions available – it may even be a small percent who are actually viable candidates. This is why your hiring process should include:

Taking the time to thoroughly screen CVs to develop a short list

Creating a carefully crafted list of interview questions

Setting aside adequate time for thorough interviews

Getting to know the candidates through a second round of interviews to confirm your choice.

Giving the hiring process dedication and attention will ensure you get the cream of the crop, contributing to the long-term success of your franchise.

2. Demonstrate support in the workplace

While you can instil the necessary skills into new recruits, it’s difficult to train for culture. This is why choosing the right employees from the beginning will make the rest of your franchise management system will run more smoothly.

“The manner by which you run the franchise will influence employee perceptions of the brand as well,” says Hireology’s Erin Borgerson. “Your staff must become ambassadors of your franchise system to attract the target consumer market.”

The best way to do this is encouraging staff to give you their honest feedback. Your commitment to creating and upholding a positive culture will result in increased loyalty from your current staff and a superior pool of applicants.

3. Offer appealing incentives

When advancement opportunities are clearly communicated, staff is keen to hear how they can get there, as they have career goals of their own. Encouraging this ambition will draw good employees to your franchise.

“Helping employees understand the steps to advancement helps them to view their current job as an important part of a career with an upward path, not just a pay cheque for this week,” say financial reporting technology experts at Qvinci.

Performance bonuses and employee benefits incentivise staff’s efforts, therefore increasing their income alongside the profit of the business. “This serves to make employees a part of the business and not merely people ‘who work there’,” they explain.